Pentagon boosts security at bases

Washington, D.C.  Nearly a year after a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, the Pentagon is taking new steps to beef up security and surveillance programs at its bases, and will join an FBI intelligence-sharing program aimed at identifying future terror threats, U.S. officials said.

The new partnership with the FBI’s eGuardian program comes two years after the Pentagon shut down a controversial anti-terror database that collected reports of suspicious activity near military installations. The now-defunct program, called TALON, was closed after revelations it had improperly stored information on peace activists.

Defense officials have moved carefully to set up the new programs, trying to balance the protection of the nation’s armed forces with the privacy and civil rights of Americans.

The decision to use the FBI’s program is part of a broader campaign to beef up security at military facilities and better identify terror threats among its troops, senior Defense officials said.